Hook & Reel Cajun Seafood & Bar — Restaurant in Meridian

I want to start by stating the service was amazing, Gianna did a great job and was a wonderful server and catered to our every needs and got everything out quickly, and how they put the order in with the tablet is cool BUT the food, and this is coming from a cook myself, was overwhelmingly mediocre Last night I got the flounder basket with the Cajun fries the fries were cooked well but seemed to be battered which is un-necessary for fries, but the Cajun seasoning was lazily shaken on top of the fries that I had not actually been seasoned properly and covered the fries. The sauces I was given were also very lack luster. I didn't even try the Cajun sauce as it was clumpy in certain parts and then watery and thin in others so I didn't bother trying. The Hook and reel special blend was interesting to start, but when my server walked me through the menu and told me the hook and reel special sauce was everything put into a sauce, this made me curious and I tried it. The H&R sauce needs heavy salt because it's a flavorless mush. The only good sauce was the tartar sauce and that's the same one I buy in the store. When I finally got my flounder it was hot and crispy but the breading was thick and the flavor was more of burned flour. It seems there is too much breading, asking for a wedge of lemon helps, maybe they could put some zest or juice into the breading? And the main part of having too much breading was my flounder was floppy, it shouldn't be floppy if it was deep fried. the fish was also under-salted, but the flounder by itself was just alright, but nothing to write home about. Hook and reel is more of an experience than a restaurant. the walls and ceiling makes you feel like your in a tacky gift shop but I like it cause nothing else in Idaho has a sea shanty vibe. The only other problem besides the food is the music, it's too loud to actually have a conversation with someone besides almost yelling at them and besides the music being super loud it's also the bad 2000's alternative pop/rock, I would rather listen to the sounds of the ocean or something that would fit the vibe of the restaurant more but the music they play is terrible and doesn't fit the...

I went here last night with my ex husband and the kids. First I’ll say usually my experience at hook and reel is amazing with great service and great food but last night is was everything but that. I’ll start with the fact that our waiter had an attitude before even starting our orders. My ex said he smiled at him as he was walking up and he gave him a glare and kept walking. He wasn’t rude to me though but he kept us waiting many times. He got our kids drinks wrong and they kept having to wait kuz he kept forgetting their drinks, we spent over $200 and he didn’t leave a good tip because the server was horrible. We ordered the kids food first with the appetizers and one of the kids meal came 15 min after the rest of us got our meals so she was sitting there hungry. We asked for plates for appetizers and he gave the table next to us with no food 4 plates with silverware and said he forgot ours and when he came back he only gave us 2 little tiny plates for the 4 of us. The food was dry when usually it’s soaked in juices instead it was like it barley had any juices at all and thick overpowering paste I barley had any shrimp in my boil and only like 6 black mussels. If I didn’t go to hook and reel on many other occasions I wouldn’t have known the difference but usually my boil is full of buttery juices and a ton of shrimp and mussels and some crab instead my potatoes were smashed like mashed potatoes and it was hard to eat because how thick the sauce was. I hate to leave a bad review because I love that place but last night was horrible and if you want a good tip maybe treat your customers like everyone else and give...

After a very rocky start, literally where we walked out before even placing an order, it turned out the best meal we had this year. We were seated by the hostess. Our server introduced himself then disappeared. Service really started slow, which was odd with very few patrons ( maybe 10 tables) and early in the evening (6 pm). Another waitress noticed we had no drinks after about 10 minutes and she served us. Our waiter came up a few minutes later and did not listen to us when we asked about appetizers. He just heard we were considering one and put the order in without us being able to ask about different options. He then proceeded to walk by us at least 5 times in the following 10 minutes or more. We felt as though we were being overlooked or ignored, So we decided we were just going to go somewhere else entirely and walked out. The GM, Robert, flagged us down and tried to get us to return. We decided to give him the benefit of doubt and went back inside. He had a conversation with our server and got our appetizer going. We ended up with fried calamari (amazing- flavorful batter, crunchy, and the calamari itself was not fishy or rubbery) combined, we had snow crab legs, scallops, sausage, head-on shrimp, and lobster tail cooked in the garlic butter...OMG it was delicious!! My biggest observation is the fact the restaurant itself did not smell of seafood. The seafood was not fishy at all, but sweet and tender (or firm) like properly cooked, or fresh, seafood should be. Thank you Robert for bringing us back inside! We would have been making a mistake going...